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61Packer,
I had resigned myself that we would never be relevant again and that football was our best and only chance to field a winning program. More than a decade later, football is still trying to tread water to also-ran, far from a winning program tradition.

I’m hopeful that first, by hiring DY, and second, hiring an experienced yet hungry coaching staff, we might actually emerge from irrelevance again. Time will tell I guess, but I’d put down even money on Gott to win a conference championship in the next 5-7 years.

RBC(or new name) center is beautiful, modern, convenient and could be a great stadium, if we could field a good basketball team.

I remember going to a Duke game, during the 1993-1994 season at Reynolds. The stadium was, at most, 3/4 full and a 1/3 of those fans seemed to be Duke fans.

Reynolds could get loud and the student section was close enough to court side that, if you were loud enough, the players could here you; yet with the teams during the Robinson era, Reynolds could be as quiet and dead as any place else.

The produce on the court matters, as much or more than the stadium.

Right now I hope the Gottfried era Wolfpack are in the early stages of turning things around.

First you lose by a lot, then you lose by a little, then you win by a little, and then you win by a lot. I think we’re in the lose by a little to lose by a lot stage, depending on how good the competition is.

Hopefully, by season end we can be in the win by a little against better teams.

When it opened in 1999, the ESA was a much nicer facility than Reynolds. However, the new facility made it impossible for the team to practice on the floor it plays on, which is a negative. Plus, the fans are pushed much farther from the court in this multi-purpose arena.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the arena when the Hurricanes leave. They are a mediocre franchise and WILL leave because this market simply isn’t going to sustain both them and the Wolfpack over the long haul. There are too many venues in Canada or the Great Lakes area that would welcome and sustain the NHL.

A 15,000-seat, max, on-campus facility is what our next move should be. We aren’t coming even close to filling the RBC except once a season, and maybe twice if Duke plays us here. When Pitt and Syracuse come aboard, and then probably Rutgers and UConn, how many seats do you think the PNC will fill during a conference home schedule that includes Pitt, Rutgers, Miami, FSU, BC, GT, WF, VT and UNC?

Why do you think so many RBC seats for ACC games are still for sale? Until we return old rivals Duke, Maryland, UVA and Clemson to our schedule twice every season, sales will continue to lag. It makes no sense to play BC, Miami, FSU and GT just as often as we play the other 4 above.

The RBC is not ideal but is more than suitable, and in many ways desirable, for our needs for the foreseeable future. Gott can build a perinnial winner there. And as mentioned, that building WILL feel MUCH better with a consistent winner on the court that will lead to bigger more energized crowds. Our biggest problem since moving there has been the teams, not the building.

Having said all that, we are probably 10-15 years max away from an opportunity to recapture our identity back on campus. The economy will eventually turn. And the cries for a downtown arena will begin again. Its already been discussed and Charlotte has provided the precedent. The Canes will actually do us a favor when they eventually demand a new downtown arena to remain in the area. We will have our chance to leave that partnership and build a new home that fits for US.

Centennial might work, but I’ve long thought the footprint where the Mission Valley hotel/dorms now sits on Avent Ferry is ideal. It would tie together Main Campus and Centennial Campus and reinvigorate the area for development. Most of all if would bring a Heartbeat back to campus. We just need to start planning for it now so when the time comes, and it will, we’ll be ready.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel a little embarrassed by this video. Crappy voice over and really nothing to celebrate between two championships and what I guess we might as well just call the dark ages… just makes me go meh.

I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in several areas in the RBC…Lower level and upper level. The bottom line is that the vast majority of fans are way too far from the action. This doesn’t mean that a game can’t have a fantastic atmosphere. It simply means that you’ll be fighting uphill for the arena as it is designed now to ever be a great arena for NC State college basketball. From a basketball perspective, there’s nothing special about the arena itself.

About the only thing it has going for it is that you can tailgate…but it was pretty cool meeting for game’s at various spots on Hillsborough Street too.

For of you who are hating on the RBC Center, you are directing your hatred toward the wrong thing. With the teams and coaches we have had in the last twenty years, we wouldn’t have enough passion to fill a 5,000 seat arena. Remember, the Les Robinson era began and ended at Reynolds, did it make a difference? Duke is not great because of Cameron Indoor, Cameron Indoor is great because of K’s Duke teams. There are lots of Cameron Indoor type arenas in the country, how come you don’t hear great things about many of them? You need great teams. Arenas are just buildings. What do you think the Dean Dome would look and feel like inside if UNC-Ch has two straight seasons of sucky teams?

quypack – basketball was the driving force behind the Dean Dome. The RBC was built to accomodate basketball. I’d also be honest enough to tell you that the only way we’ll fill the RBC is if we have great teams and great schedules.

Look at it this way, great teams can play in crappy arenas and people will go see them. That’s not the point. The point is this – you want an arena that is clearly an asset in every way to your program.

See Dogbreath’s notes on UVa’s arena. They did the intelligent thing. As NC State tended to do – especially during that period of time – we did bent over backwards trying to “work with the community” and we compromised. As a result, our new arena, from a basketball standpoint, is mediocre. We’re not playing in the “Jake”, we’re playing in Riverfront Stadium/Fulton County stadium.

It’s perfectly functional and meets our needs, but when you compare to the other new arenas in the ACC – it sucks.

Hate on the RBC if you will, but those rooting for a return to Reynolds are psychotic. I’ll bet I have attended as many games there as just about any on this site, and I loved it at the time. But it’s a dump now. And that’s exactly what it should be, it is about 70 years old and is many years past its time. I like that the women have moved in and call it home, but there is no comparison between Reynolds and the RBC. Ask any basketball team in the country, men or women, where they would prefer to play – 99% would pick the RBC Center.

Oh bah Humbug. The RBC is a great place to call home. Do you know how many programs would kill to have a home like that? The problem with the RBC is not the RBC, it is the fans that do not show up that make it a hollow building. Pack that thing tight with a winning program and it’s an awesome secene.